Oh, sorry I should have said over the next year.  Meaning from now to next June.  Both of these games will probably be 2009.

On Red Alert 3:  Red Alert - Westwood Studios = crap.   

I already want this more than SCII, sync kills are ridiculously cool.

Ooh, nice. My main response to the first screenshots was complaining about how the Orks were too damn shiny, but all this sounds awesome. Guess that after a pretty unimpressive last expansion pack, I was expecting the sequel to be equally lame. Good to see that's not the case.

 Blackthorne and the first two Warcrafts say hello.

Better graphics?

Apart from the fact that DoW2 looks fantastic, Relic are quite simply the best RTS developers around bar none. Company of Heroes, Dawn of War and Homeworld have all completely changed the way RTS games are played, and all have been absolute masterpieces. 

This game will be fantastic, no doubt about it. The fact that it will also look incredible is simply a bonus.

 Agreed, Relic develops the best Pure RTS game, I find Blizzard to be good in the sense that their games are more versatile (aka. moddable/user created contents, and what not).

Never played Blackthorne, but the first two Warcrafts were amazing for their time.  I know people who like WC2 better than WC3.   

Anyway, I never got into Company of Heroes... though I blame that on me despising World War 2 games.  I do really like the original Dawn of War, but it hardly changed the way RTS games were played.  This definitely looks more revolutionary than Dawn of War was.

That said, I agree with Kyros that Blizzard's ability to perfectly balance 3 completely unique races will always make them the RTS king for me.  When I play a game I want completely different experiences depending on which race I play, and I want that experience to be balanced.

I'll be buying both these games, but the competitive one will be SC2.  This will be the "crazy new ideas" one. 

Looks nice, but it is the PC power issues. I do want this and Empire Total War, but my crap PC is holding me back

 Personally, I always thought that the Warcraft series was inferior to C&C and other strategy games of the time period, mainly because Orcs and Humans were carbon copies of each other in the first two games, excluding spells and certain upgrades. Warcraft 3 was more than equal to Red Alert 2, though. If you haven't played Blackthorne I suggest you try it - it's kinda like a less puzzley, more action-based Flashback. A solid game, but not exactly spectacular.

Blizzard is good in eventually balancing its games, true. But I'm pretty damn sure that StarCraft 2 will be unbalanced as hell out of the box. I still remember the Huntress and Orc Tower fiascos that plagued WarCraft3 when it came out.

without base-building it will be less a clickfest and more of a World in Conflict-like RTS, and IMO that's good.

I've commented in the article, all the loot and misison-structure sounds a lot like FFXII Revenant Wings, and again, IMO that's good.

I really want it :)  more than SCII anyway, that's not my kind of RTS :P